What Could Have Been
by TheOnlyMeThereIs
Summary: Is it just me that wonders what could have been if Kagome did not shatter the jewel in that fatal episode? If she and Inuyasha had to merely protect the sacred jewel, rather than trying to collect all the pieces? Could their relationship have been much quicker than 3 years, and much less painful for them both? Could it have been happier? Kagome x Inuyasha:)
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so I know I haven't finished Maybe, (my other Inuyasha fanfic dedicated to Kikyo x Inuyasha,) but this going to be like a mirror image fiction to that one, where Kagome is the main heroine.**

**Before I start, this goes for the entire story: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters.**

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"Subjugate him!"

_What!? What do I say? It's all very well telling me to 'subjugate' him, but that could mean anything..!  
_"SIT!" I shouted._  
_He crashed to the ground, necklace first._  
_"Wha..?"_  
It worked! I hadn't expected it to work- but it did!_

Inuyasha attempted to get to his feet once more, a heavy scowl twisting his features into an angry scramble.  
"Sit!" I commanded.

Once again, he smashed into the wooden bridge. Lifting his head, he wrinkled his nose in anger, and bared his teeth, growling like a wild hound.  
"Sit." I said, this time controlled.

Rather than just collapsing to the floor, as he had the previous times, this time the flimsy wooden planks gave way, and the half-demon was flung through the air to splash violently into the rapids below.  
_I hope he's okay…_ I thought, concerned.  
Then I shook the thought from my head- why should I worry about him? He had just tried to kill me!

absent-mindedly, I plucked the shikon jewel from its spot on the slat of the bridge where just ten seconds ago Inuyasha had been, and, avoiding the chasm that now threatened to send me to my doom, walked carefully back to Kaede and the other villagers. As I approached the crowd of spectators, a stab of pain dug at my waist and I remembered for the first time, the gash I had received from the centipede-demon. Pressing a hand tight to my wound to staunch the flow of blood, whilst keeping a tight grip on the sacred jewel with my other, I staggered away from the bridge.

An hour later, I was sat in Kaede's hut once more, grimacing from the pain of the antiseptic cream the priestess was applying to the bloody slash on my side where the sacred jewel had been lodged.  
_Why was it inside me?_ I wondered, not for the first time.

I glanced over to the door at the sound of someone entering, and saw, to my surprise, Inuyasha pushing his way past the roughly attached flap designed to act as a door until Kaede's home could be properly repaired. Since the centipede's attack on the village a few hours ago, men from every home had been working hard to fix the damages, starting with the most affected houses. Kaede watched Inuyasha enter with an element of curiosity, before chuckling to herself.

"What?" he grouched.  
"It seems the holding power of the rosary is quite effective." She chuckled.  
_It must have a stay command imbedded as well. _I thought, smirking.

Scowling, Inuyasha huffed to the floor and lay on his side, facing away from us. It was then that I realized I had been sat with my whole upper body exposed the entire time, due to Kaede's wrapping of thin bandages around my middle. I blushed. _Was that why he had sat facing away from us? _I wondered to myself. _Although he doesn't seem the gentlemanly type… Inuyasha seems the sort who would sit and gawk if a girl was sat topless in the same room… _Then a worse thought struck me: _what if he just doesn't _want _to see? Maybe he just doesn't find me appealing, and would rather face away than watch me?_

I shook my head to clear the thoughts- why did it matter anyway? Inuyasha was the bad one in all of this- he was only sticking around in order to get his hands on the sacred jewel, regardless of whether I was there or not!  
"All done." Kaede announced, handing me back my school top.

I pulled the familiar material on quickly, glad to be covered up again. To my chagrin, it was then that Inuyasha decided to roll over and face us again. _So it was me._ He lay staring at us for some time, his eyes flicking to the pouch where the shikon jewel was kept every few seconds, until Kaede finally sighed and got up to tend the stew.

For a while, we sat in silence. Then, in a quiet, ominous voice, Kaede murmured:  
"This does not bode well."  
I looked up.  
"Now that the sacred jewel has reappeared, there will be others who seek to possess it. And not just demons, but also humans who have evil in their hearts. With all the violence in the world, it figures that there will be those who seek the jewel's power to realize their greedy ambitions."

I paused for a moment to absorb Kaede's words, before looking over to Inuyasha once more.

"Hey, why are you here anyway?" I asked, coldly.  
"Give me the sacred jewel." He said, in the least forceful voice I have ever heard, or shall ever hear.  
"Why do you want the sacred jewel? You're awfully strong without it!"

"He is only a Hanyō." Kaede interjected casually.

At her words, Inuyasha flexed his fist and punched a hole straight through the wooden floorboards of the priestess' hut.  
"You old hag! Who do you think you are anyway? Don't talk as if you know all about me!"

"Don't you understand?" she asked, just as calmly as if there was no hole in her floor. "I am the younger sister of Kikyo, the one who put the spell on you. I am Kaede."

A brief flicker of some unreadable emotion flashed across Inuyasha's face, but it was gone before I could identify what it was.  
"Oh, you're that kid…" he muttered, leaning back on his arms nonchalantly.  
"Fifty years have passed, and I have grown old." She said, by way of explanation.  
"And that means that Kikyo must be really old now too." He stated wistfully.

"My sister Kikyo died." Kaede said bluntly, piling logs onto the hearty fire that burned.

Again, something about Inuyasha's demeanor wavered for a split second, but just as before, I had not the chance to probe deeper into the emotion before it was replaced by his usual cold self.  
"Ah, so that's how it went- she kicked the bucket did she?" he slouched back onto his side. "What a relief!"

"Inuyasha, it is too early to breathe a sigh of relief. Kagome is the reincarnation of my sister Kikyo…"

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**Okay, thanks for reading the first chapter, I know it wasn't that interesting but it will get better:) And I also know that it was basically a rewrite of episodes 1 and 2, but I just wanted to get a feel for this story before I dive into the 'real' storyline...**

**Anyway, please review and tell me what you think:D**


	2. Chapter 2

_So… she's dead…_

I was sat cross-legged on a wide branch of a very tall, very old tree, staring out across the horizon and pondering the new information. Fifty years had passed in the blink of an eye. No sooner had the fatal arrow, fired by the woman I loved, pierced my skin, than I was opening my eyes to see _her_ clutching at my clothes in a desperate attempt to escape. It was only natural that I had taken her to be Kikyo, the last person I had seen before my dreamless slumber, especially considering that they looked and smelled so alike.

I heard the whizzing of the pear before it hit me, and extended one arm calmly behind my back to catch the flying fruit. I knew who had thrown it. I had smelt _her_ ages before she had even seen me. I looked in confusion at the pear. _Was she trying to knock me from my perch?_

"Here!" she shouted up to me, "I'll share with you!"

I scowled. The last thing I needed now, when I was trying to wallow in self-pity, was _her_ screeching in my ear. '_Sit,' 'sit!' _I mimicked her silently. She thought she was _so _powerful, but she would never live up to Kikyo. The only reason she could control me was because of some rosary Kaede had forced upon me- the only reason Kaede even knew how to do that was because of Kikyo!

"What's with all that food?" I asked her, scowling down at her to let my feelings be known.  
"The villager's offerings." She replied innocently. "Say, can't you come down? Let's eat together."

_Hmph. So now the villagers were even worshipping her like some kind of deity. They never even showed Kikyo that amount of respect._

Begrudgingly, I jumped down and flopped down onto the grass underneath the tree. Despite my loathing of the Kikyo-look-alike, the fruit looked good, and I could feel my stomach growling even as I glared at her. She sat beside me and I drew my legs into myself, glaring at her relentlessly. Seemingly unperturbed by my stares, she munched happily on a pear, gazing out across the view. _Was she an air-head? And why was she trying to be nice to me anyway? Maybe… maybe she was planning something?!_

"You're up to something. I know it." I accused her, squinting my eyes suspiciously.  
"Am not." She replied, without even turning her head to look at me. "Only…" she glanced towards me from under her eyelashes, "you do hate me, don't you?"

Her innocent act irritated me.

"You have nooo idea how much!" I replied angrily.  
"Look!" she scowled, "The one you hate is not me, but this lady named Kikyo!"

I stopped in my tracks.

_She thought that…?!_

I stood quickly, and leapt back up into the leaves above, concealing my surprise and melancholy from her.

"I'm Kagome!" she cried helplessly, "I'm not Kikyo!"

_Exactly… that's the problem._

"So wont you be a little nicer to me?"  
"Are you stupid or what?!" I shouted back, "I don't care who you are! In order to get the sacred jewel I have to be merciless!"

Her eyes widened.  
"I see," was all she said. "In case you decide to get violent, then… all I have to say is 'sit' and-"

The air was knocked out of my lungs as the ground rushed up to meet me. Cursing her name, I peeled my face from the dirt and glared at her, venom dripping from my eyes.

She didn't even notice my anger.  
"Oops! Sorry, I didn't mean that!"

_Dumb girl._

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I sensed their presence even in my sleep. Corpse crows. Drawn to the village by the presence of the jewel. Sneaking out of Kaede's hut so as not to wake the old woman and _her_, I easily scattered the stupid birds breaking off their perch with one kick. For the rest of that night, I kept watch over Kaede's hut and the jewel, sitting alert on the roof and mourning Kikyo as I surveyed the deathly night…

The next morning, I was awoken by Kaede's cries.  
"Kagome! Kagome!"

I scowled, as was my habit upon hearing _her_ name, and sat up, groggily. By listening to the villagers, I managed to ascertain that she was not anywhere in the village, or the surrounding fields. That meant she must have wandered off through the woods. She could not possibly have left during the night without my knowing, and so that left the few early hours of the morning before Kaede awoke for her to leave.

_Had she taken the jewel? What if she had gone back to her land with it? Would it never be seen again?_

I sat up, suddenly alert and squinted over towards the forest. That was where she had appeared; maybe she would try and get back that way too? In one, fluid movement, I leapt from my rooftop seat and ran, full sprint, towards the shikon jewel, trying my best to track her scent.

"Oh great," I spat after five minutes of blind running, "That stupid girl! Where'd she go with the jewel?!"

As I sniffed the air for any clues of her whereabouts, I heard, from my right, a calamitous rumble, as if half of the forest were crashing to the ground! Without a doubt, I knew that's where it was. Only the jewel could cause such a commotion. That and the _baka _who was supposed to be protecting it!

I ran towards the sound of the trouble, realizing as I approached, that it was coming from within some sort of house! Although it looked more like a misused temple. It was as I was sprinting towards the quickly collapsing building, that I saw something small and glittery fly from the window of the place. Realizing what it was instantaneously, I dove through the air and caught the jewel by the tips of my fingers.

"Aha!" I cried, victorious.

But then I wished I hadn't. My shout alerted _her_ to the fact that I had caught the precious jewel, and she stuck her head out of the window the jewel had just been flung out of.

"Inuyasha! Sit!"

I face-planted the hard mud, my fists clenching as I hit the ground. Growling, I pulled myself up.

"Inuyasha!" she cried, suddenly disappearing from view.

Swaying on the spot as I battled with my mind, I tried to decide whether or not to help, or leave. Then, cursing, I kicked my way through the flimsy wall of the dilapidated building and landed beside her. It was pointless running away. With one word she could bring me, literally, to my knees. Better to rescue the dumb look-alike and sneak away in the night when she was sleeping.

"You came to rescue me!" she cried joyfully.

I scowled, avoiding her pretty eyes, and turned to face our enemy. It was obvious, from the pungent smell of rotting flesh, that the source of the trouble was a corpse crow, presumably one of the ones I had scared off the night previous. In one swift jump, I punched a hole through the chest of the great oaf that the sneaky bird was controlling and dislodged it from its nest. The red eyed crow squawked away to join the rest of its murder leaving the huge bulk of a man behind to crash before my feet.

"Aren't you going to go after that crow?" she asked.  
"I don't have time to chase after every little demon, and anyway the jewel is safe."  
"But I threw it out of the-"

"I know, _baka_, I caught it!" I replied, folding my arms and turning my back to her.  
"Hand it over then." She demanded.

_What did she think I was? Some commonplace dog?_

"No."

"Inuyasha…" I glanced back quickly.

_She wouldn't…?_

"SIT!"

For..! I swallowed the curse and held out one arm, agitated.

_Should have run away when you had the chance…_

I picked myself up, trying my utmost to muster whatever dignity I still possessed.

"Kagome, let's go."

"Huh?" her eyes widened.  
"What?"  
"It's just that… you've never said my name before." She replied, her large, brown eyes now shining with her smile.

"Yeah, what of it?"  
"Well… maybe you've decided to be nicer to me?"

I turned my nose up and began to walk away.  
"Hm. Don't get too excited. I haven't decided anything yet."

But even as I skulked away, nose wrinkled, eyebrows drawn and lips pursed, the imprint of her doe-like eyes, shining all because I said her name, remained burned to my eyelids.

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**SO, chapter 2 was from Inuyasha's POV- I thought he needed a little input;)**

**And I know it's probably quite soon for him and Kagome to begin to get on, but I don't intend for this to be a long fiction, so you'll just have to bear the speedy character development...**

**Please review:)**


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